talk of Agnes soon quiet Paul's
excited nerves. No hint is given of his strange apparition. The evening
passes pleasantly, though at times Paul feels a creepy sense of dread.
He is loth to leave. From mute signs he concludes it is better to go.
Paul hurries away about midnight.

Within half an hour the rooms occupied by Sir Charles and Agnes are
vacated. Two figures in male attire enter a closed conveyance, and are
driven rapidly in an opposite direction from that taken by Paul Lanier.

CHAPTER IX

THE HOSPITAL CONFESSION

Sir Donald Randolph and Esther remained several months at Paris.

While keeping fully advised of all developments reported to the London
detective bureau, Sir Donald seemed absorbed in sight-seeing. His zeal
in unmasking the conspiracy resulting in the double murder was unabated.
That Paul Lanier, at the instigation of his father, committed the
homicides, partial developments tended to prove. From Calcutta and
Bombay advices received at London there was no doubt that some fraud had
been perpetrated against the estate of William Webster by his partner in
India.

Sir Donald felt much concern for the welfare of Esther. Not having his
retributive zeal to support her in this trial, she brooded more over the
recent past. He tried to divert her mind to pleasant subjects, thereby
weaning from sorrowful memories.

There was much in Paris life to engross youthful attention. This, with
her generous sympathy for her father's troubles and effort to mitigate
his painful remembrances, prevented gloomy melancholy. Yet Esther could
not be joyous. Both Oswald and Alice were transfigured. Her love for the
one and pity for the other grew in tender pathos. Oswald Langdon ever
would be an ideal of courteous, refined, considerate, earnest,
high-souled manhood, whose last of life had touched her being's most
sensitive vibratory chords.

Father and daughter were much admired by Parisian social elite. Their
rare intelligence, culture, and refined manners had an irresistible
charm. However, there was that about both which repelled familiar
personal association. They moved amid gay festivities as if their
thoughts were elsewhere.

This abstraction and mutual care for each other's wants tinged their
conduct with romantic interest. In all the whirl and surge of Parisian
life, these unique faces never failed to attract notice. Neither seeking
nor avoiding social recognition, they became quite extensively known